MARGAO: Taking a dig at the government over the statement made by the Chief Minister pertaining to Rs. 300 crore allotments for disbursement of pending financial assistance, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao stated that concerned departments are still awaiting allotment of funds.
He said that it is important that the Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant who also holds the Finance Portfolio should practice ‘Antoday policy’ in letter and spirit and must ensure that the benefits actually reach to the needy in time. It appears that the Government has still not come out from the obsession of making big announcements and actually doing nothing.
As informed by LoP, he had taken information from various departments through his Legislative Assembly Questions on pending dues of various Social Welfare Schemes initiated by Social Welfare, Women and Child, Sports, Art and Culture and other departments. After compilation of the figures, it came to light that pending dues had touched 330 Crores and the pendency was from 2016 onwards.
“Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phaldessai had replied to my Starred LAQ 12A dated 18th July 2023, that an Amount of 35.73 crores is pending of various Social Welfare Beneficiaries which include an amount of 21.50 crores towards Covid-19 relief to marginalized and unorganised sector”, informed further.
The information given to me further revealed that an amount of 55.83 crores was not disbursed to 1.39 lakhs beneficiaries of the Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS), said Alemao.
LoP said it is unfortunate that 3.06 crores for OBC students towards post matric scholarship, 4.37 Lakhs to SC students for pre-matric scholarship, 1.06 crores to OBC students for pre-matric scholarship were not disbursed by the Government for the last six years. The Government has also not paid 8.58 crores for SC, OBC and EWS towards Atal Asra Yojana.
He expressed hopes that the Chief Minister will take immediate steps to ensure that the money reaches the accounts of the beneficiaries before Ganesh Chaturthi Festival.
